Mr. Cool Beans

Walter Marshall is the Sayings Czar. He’s in charge of what gets printed on Sweethearts Conversation Hearts, the heart-shaped candies with which people have been telling each other KISS ME, BE MINE and SWEET TALK for the last 96 Valentine’s Days.

Or sometimes, depending on the decade, FOXY LADY, DIG ME, HUBBA HUBBA or GAY BOY (actually, that last one was quite a few decades ago). Every year, New England Candy Co., which also makes Necco Wafers, changes a few of the 100 sayings that will appear on Sweethearts.

Marshall’s tenure as czar has seen not only current catch phrases like YOU RULE and GO GIRL and cyber-type messages (WWW.CUPID, BE MY ICON) but somewhat cynical, ‘90s-style messages--tart Sweethearts, as it were--which need to be pronounced with the correct mocking schoolkid intonation: YEAH RIGHT, GET REAL, EXCUSE ME, HELLO.

“There’s still about 85% on the romantic side,” Marshall says. “The others we’ve been taking liberties with.”

Partly as a result of the jazzy messages, Marshall is something of a cultural figure in Boston. He will appear on “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” on Friday.

How did he get this cool job? Simple; Marshall is Necco’s vice president for Logistics and Planning. “This is a self-elected dictatorship,” he says. “I just took a liking to these little rascals.”

Sweethearts are made from the same basic candy mixture as Necco Wafers, but in a slightly different range of colors and flavors. The idea of the printed sayings goes back to the 1860s, when Daniel Chase, brother of the inventor of the Necco Wafer, started putting printed slips of paper in a cockleshell-shaped candy the company made at the time. Sweethearts, with messages printed on the candy, were introduced in 1902.

“The candy starts out looking like a big lump of Play Dough,” Marshall says. “It goes through something like an old-fashioned washing machine wringer, and it comes out the rollers in a blanket. Then a printing device prints a row of 80 messages at a time, and then the candy is cut into hearts.

“The machine does this 156 times a minute. So that’s 12,480 candies a minute.” The company makes 8 billion Sweethearts a year.

By the way, Necco will custom-imprint any message you want--if you’re prepared to buy a full production run, which is about a ton and a half. It’ll cost $75,000 to $80,000.

Short of that, Marshall is always on the lookout for new Sweethearts sayings. He got several of this year’s newcomers from his grandchildren, but outsiders have contributed sayings that have been used.

“People send them in all the time,” he says. “PHAT has been suggested. COOL BEANS, YOU’RE THE BOMB. We’re mulling them.” If you have a suggestion, you can send it to Necco, 254 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139.

The messages have to be short--two to four words--and inoffensive. “People have suggested all sorts of naughty messages,” Marshall says. “I tell them if they want to be naughty, just turn the candy over and write on the back.”